A couple of years ago, environmental awareness was very much in vogue, with exhibitions such as the Barbican's Radical Nature and the Royal Academy's Earth – Art of a Changing World. Now the subject has fallen out of fashion, but I believe that it is of the utmost importance to keep it alive. I also feel that artists have an obligation to work responsibly and sustainably so that we can exploit the discipline as a vehicle for raising awareness and influencing a wider audience.
My fantastical landfill constructs are a meditation on the convoluted nature of modern life, as well as an illustration of the idea that pollution of every description encroaches on our fragile and overburdened environment, to the detriment of all. By combining traditional landscape with an illustration of my cynicism of the aggrandisement of commercialism and accelerating urbanisation, I initiate discourse on important social themes. My painting is therefore an attempt to connect the visual and culturally familiar experience of the landscape with its visceral, reflexive equivalent, so that the viewer can identify with the pleasures of the existing but endangered 'great outdoors', and also become more aware of issues which imperil our fragile and beautiful planet.
2008 - 2009 MA, Wimbledon College of Art
2008 Summer Studio, Cyprus College of Art, Lemba, Cyprus
2005 - 2008 BA hons, School of Art, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
1996 - 2005 West Buckland School, West Buckland, Devon
Solo
2011 The New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
2011 The Archway Gallery, Wellington School, Somerset
2011 Brighton Media Centre, East Sussex
2010 Hester Berry: Landscapes, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
2010 Horizons, West Buckland School, Devon
2009 'It's All Up In The Air', Gallery 118, Notting Hill, London
Group
2011 Artsdepot Open, Artsdepot, North Finchley, London
2011 Hop Open Exhibition 2011, Hop Gallery, Lewes, Sussex
2010 Outlook - an exhibition to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research
2010 Westward Ho! And Bideford Art Society 88th Summer Exhibition Burton Art Gallery, Bideford, Devon
2010 Festival of Nature, The Bristol Gallery, Bristol
2009 Deutsche Postbank Summer Exhibition, London
2009 MA Show, Wimbledon College of Art, London
2009 Artsdepot Open, Artsdepot, North Finchley, London
2009 'Intersections', MA Interim Show 2009, The Nunnery, London
2009 New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
2009 Deutsche Postbank Exhibition, London
2008 Elizabeth Finn Care and Macmillan Cancer Support Art Exhibition for Young Artists, Hallsannery, Devon
2008 Celebration Exhibition, 150th Anniversary of West Buckland School, Devon
2008 Appledore Gallery, Appledore, Devon
2008 Westward Ho! And Bideford Art Society 86th Summer Exhibition Burton Art Gallery, Bideford, Devon
2008 Degree show, Aberystwyth University
2008 Boundary Gallery, London
2008 Oriel Dafydd Hardy, Caernarfon
2008 Student Art Society 2007/08, UWA, Morlan Centre, Aberystwyth
2007 Exhibition for Open Competition, Art Matters, Tenby, Pembrokeshire
2007 Westward Ho! And Bideford Art Society 85th Summer Exhibition Burton Art Gallery, Bideford, Devon
2007 Student Art Society 2006/07, UWA, at Cambria Arts, Tregaron, Wales
2006 Westward Ho! And Bideford Art Society 84th Summer Exhibition Burton Art Gallery, Bideford, Devon
2008 Geoffrey Crawshay Memorial Travelling Scholarship
2007 Secretary for the Student Art Society, UWA
2006- Westward Ho! and Bideford Art Society